“The Soul’s Lament for Home” by Frances Sargent Osgood

by theliterarymaiden

As ‘plains the home-sick ocean-shell,
Far from its own remembered sea,
Repeating, like a fairy spell
Of love, the charmed melody
It learned within that whispering wave,
Whose wondrous and mysterious tone
Still wildly haunts its winding cave
Of pearl, with softest music-moan—

So asks my home-sick soul, below,
For something loved, yet undefined;
So mourns to mingle with the flow
Of music, from the Eternal Mind;
So murmurs, with its child-like sigh,
The melody it learned above,
To which no echo may reply,
Save from thy voice, Celestial Love!